Revision as of 17:08, 1 February 2013

"...the threat of recall can be a useful way to spotlight someone who is stinking up the place with the casual arrogance endemic to too many electeds. They feign selflessness and a mere desire for service on the campaign trail and turn high and mighty once in office."Editorial, Pasadena Star-News, May 13, 2010

Legend:

a = Recall target was recalled by voters.

d = When a recall vote was held, voters rejected the attempt to recall the politician (that is, voters decided to keep/retain the targeted politician).

= Recall effort did not collect enough signatures to force a recall vote.

= Targeted politician resigned after a recall campaign was begun, and before the vote on the recall would have taken place.

On November 6, 22 officials in 6 states face the prospect of being recalled from office. Officeholders in Arkansas, California, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Nebraska will fight to be retained by voters. Below is a breakdown of the recall action in each state.

HERCULES, California: Hercules mayor Ed Balico resigned abruptly on January 11, 2011, just minutes before he was due to be handed a notice of intent to recall.[1] The surprise resignation left city council members Donald Kuehne and Joanne Ward as the two remaining targets of a recall campaign fuelled by anger over "corruption, financial malfeasance and incompetent administration."[2]

With the resignation of Balico, the Hercules City Council is down to 4 members. New city council members John Delgado and Myrna de Vera were elected on the November 2, 2010 ballot, decisively defeating incumbents Kris Valstad and Joe Eddy McDonald as the first wave of voter discontent over what many perceive as financial shenanigans made itself felt at the ballot box.

If the recall effort against Ward and McDonald succeeds, the city council will have had a complete turnover in its membership.

Recall supporters include Cindy Rasmussen, who, at a city council meeting on January 11, 2011, when notices of intent to recall the three targets were served, said, "I continue to be shocked, appalled and, frankly, very incensed at the continual revelations of failures of leadership in this city by the long-term members of this City Council...We intend to take our city back and ensure that this pattern of corruption, lies and mismanagement will stop, and that you will answer for putting this wonderful city in horrendous financial jeopardy with your arrogance, your incompetence and your egregious lack of integrity."[4]

When Balico resigned, he said he wanted "to spend more time with his family."[1] According to Tom Barnidge, a columnist for the Contra Costa Times:

Donald Kuehne, targeted for recall

On the very night that a residents group planned to serve Hercules Mayor Ed Balico with a letter of intent to recall him from office -- in fact, minutes before it was to be slapped on his desk -- he announced he was stepping down from the City Council.

What are the odds of those events intersecting?

It's like a man deciding to step off a roadway just before a cement truck runs over him.

It was a lifestyle decision, Balico said. His many years in office, as a planning commissioner and council member, had made him a stranger to his wife and kids. Dinners were missed, vacations postponed. He'd even forgotten that his daughter plans to marry in May. (That should make for a fun family conversation.)[4]

When Kuehne, who was first elected to a four-year term on the Hercules City Council in 2010, was served with an intent of notice to recall on January 11, 2011, a local newspaper reported that he "...glared from his seat, a smirk peeking out from beneath his mustache, then tore apart the notice he'd been handed and tossed it over his shoulder."[4]

When Joanne Ward was served with an intent of notice to recall, she "...looked flush-faced stunned, as if she had just walked into a wall. She sat motionless, her lower lip hanging open as the charges were read. If a teleporter were available, she would have beamed herself anywhere else."[4]